The UT administration has decided to approach the union ministry of home affairs (MHA) to review the functioning of the Police Complaint Authority (PCA).

The UT administration has decided to approach the union ministry of home affairs (MHA) to review the functioning of the Police Complaint Authority (PCA).

The administration is of view that PCA has been acting outside its legal mandate by issuing orders, whereas it can only make recommendations. The issue was discussed in a meeting of top officials of the administration with administrator Shivraj Patil held on the sidelines of a public hearing session held on Monday.

During a meeting, a case of property dispute was discussed in which PCA had ordered the suspension of the station house officer (SHO) of Sector 31 and restoration of property in favour of the complainant within a period of one week.

UT senior officials said they would write to MHA and apprise them of the situation.

The local police have been accused of showing no regard for PCA as they have reportedly failed to take appropriate action against cops, who are found guilty of misconduct in inquiries conducted by the latter in several cases.

The Punjab and Haryana high court had recently issued directions to the UT administration to direct the UT police to follow all norms of PCA in letter and spirit and to act on its recommendations.

In a bid to provide more impetus to the body, the high court had ordered the administration to amend its notification regarding PCA, which was against the Supreme Court directions.

The court directions had came from the division bench comprising chief justice Arjan Kumar Sikri and justice Rakesh Kumar Jain on a public interest litigation (PIL), which had highlighted that the authorities concerned in Chandigarh were hardly taking any action on PCA's recommendations.

As per the apex court's judgment in the case, Prakash Singh and others vs Union of India and others, “The recommendations of the complaints' authority both at the district and state levels for any action, departmental or criminal, against a delinquent police officer shall be binding on the authority concerned.”

The Chandigarh administration had set up PCA in August 2010 to inquire into allegations of serious misconduct such as death in police custody, grievous hurt, rape or attempt to rape, or any other incident involving serious abuse of authority by the police.

The three-member body is functioning under the chairmanship of justice NK Aggarwal (retd) with former IPS officer Kanwaljit Singh and Joyshri Lobo as members.

In the past one year, PCA had disposed of around 400 complaints, out of which, in around 100 cases police personnel, ranging from the post of DSP to constable, were found guilty of misconduct. It had ordered suspension of around 15 policemen.